Sweet Briar College - closing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've never even heard of it, and I'm one of those people who brought a horse to college (albeit to the University of CT). Clearly their marketing wasn't stellar.

Their former riding coach was the coach for the US Olympic Team. Dedicated riders knew Sweet Briar.

Always nice to see how someone here can take an innocuous post and be bitchy. Perhaps I wasn't a hunter/jumper rider? (I wasn't). Perhaps I'm significantly older?

Aaaah, that's it. A quick google brings up Mimi Wroten, who you're presumably referring to, is more than 10 yrs younger than I am.

Not the PP, but your post was a tad bitchy, don't you think? "Clearly their marketing wasn't stellar" is the reason you haven't heard of it? Anyone who rides on the east coast, regardless of age, has heard of it. I'm almost 50 and know of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've never even heard of it, and I'm one of those people who brought a horse to college (albeit to the University of CT). Clearly their marketing wasn't stellar.

Their former riding coach was the coach for the US Olympic Team. Dedicated riders knew Sweet Briar.

Yup. My daughter, who had the difficult epiphany that I am not Michael Bloomberg, was temporarily set on Sweet Briar during her college search, which for a brief time this year was solely focused on places to further her riding education.

I am happy to report it took a more practical turn without any tears. University of CT was on her list too. We have no horse, nor money for a horse and it to go to college too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were a group of students from large state publics - headed to the beach - we picked up our friend from Sweet Briar. She had to be signed-out. It had to be approved. It seemed so odd to us. She had to give lots of info: where she was going, when she would be back, who she was with. We were use to being spontaneous. Wondered what she wrote down. Our plan - since we were being cheap - was to all (men & women but no romances) to stay together in 1 hotel room.

What year was this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It actually has one of the best acceptance rates to Vet school. Not surprising because of the horse culture but that is nothing to scoff at. It still has a good endowment. But the reality is that in general small liberal arts colleges are having a tough time. I think this will continue to happen and it won't just be single sex schools. Obviously that didn't help Sweetbriar since it was so small and so remote and then on top of that, it only accepts women. On the other hand, there are tons of very small liberal arts college who should pay attention because this is probably coming there way.

One point to consider. The school had enrolled Freshman for next year. So they had been going along, business as usual. I know a freshman there who was given nearly $20K a year in scholarships to attend. It sounds like the school was on cruise control and just doing the same thing as always to get people in and have warm bodies at all costs (lower academic scores, more scholarships) and finally someone decided to face the music. So students are being transferred out and new students will have some time to look elsewhere. In other words, the process will be as smooth as it can be under the circumstances. Some of the SLACS out there who are shoveling money into kids hands to get those kids to come should probably think about doing what Sweet Briar has done.

I do think it is sad. It was a unique place and beautiful. I hope that the campus is transformed into something. Maybe it will be the Radcliffe of Virginia and have lots of education opportunities for women but not be a college. That's right--Radcliffe stopped being 4 year school quite a while ago.

What exactly is Radcliffe then? Do they just offer classes but no degree? I thought a diploma from Radcliffe had both Harvard and Radcliffe on the diploma.

Honestly, no comparison here. Radcliffe was across the street from Harvard. Radcliffe had no independent authority (under its Mass. state charter) to award earned degrees independently of Harvard -- it had been largely academically integrated since the 30s, and completely academically integrated since the late 60s. Radcliffe still exists as a Harvard-affiliated non-profit research and academic projects entity and a provider of financial aid to female Harvard students. Sweet Briar has no potential adopter. Sweet Briar's endowment is not petty, but applied to the IRS 5% private foundation minimum floor (which isn't applicable, but it's an example), the endowment wouldn't produce $10,000 per student per year. Between remoteness, size, single-sex, and cash-dependency, Sweet Briar faced a very difficult situation. Not at all comparable to Radcliffe.

[Anonymous]

What a sad story. I am not from Virginia, but I find it sad whenever unique places like this are lost. It was clearly a great school. This is not just a loss for the women there, but for everyone who values diversity in education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why couldn't they have had a woman college president?

Until this guy, all but one of their presidents were women. I'm guessing the board brought this guy in to help them close up shop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:You can't charge a lot of money and not have a lot to offer. I think we will be seeing this more and more. The single sex part was the nail in the coffin.

There are a number of quite good single-sex colleges remaining. But what will be the deathknell for them is the way they are twisting them selves in pretzel knots to remain women's colleges in theory while allowing trannies and "women in transition." Recently Mount Holyoke I think cancelled a performance of the play "the Vagina Monologues," not because it is insufferable, but rather because some might deem it insensitive to students who self identify as female but who have penises. If these schools are already accepting those who might accurately be called "girly men," then they might as well go ahead and accept men generally.

"Girly men"?

Tell me, are you able to buy shirts, what with your knuckles dragging the floor like that?

Oh, knock it off. This PP makes some excellent points.

Really? Buried in all that snottiness is a point?

Yes, I think so. In a desperate attempt to attract more $tudent$ some of these colleges are being idiotically politically correct, thus turning off more people than they are actually attracting.

It's a small minority of bigoted alums who are upset about the schools being trans-inclusionary. The schools are better off without them.

Oh, so because they disagree with you they are "bigots." How fascinating.

[Anonymous]

What I don't get is how with only 12 million in debt and an 84 million dollar endowment they can't keep the school going. Very sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What I don't get is how with only 12 million in debt and an 84 million dollar endowment they can't keep the school going. Very sad.

A conservative 5% throw-off would be roughly 3,600,000. If the $12M in debt were bonded out at a tax-free, secured debt rate of 2.75% for a 30 year liquidating term, that's 600K. That leaves $3M per year of endowment income. That doesn't pay for the utilities and the English department. They were positively squeezed.

[Anonymous]

Maybe they could give the campus to Virginia Tech? Use it for something.

[Anonymous]

This is sad, but after looking at their materials, t seemed like a school from another era. . I thought their mascot was cute, but she (I guess?)wears a pink bow. Their marketing seemed off and outdated. The school's pictures revealed how white the student body was. Contrast that to Hollins which has updated its brand and tries to show a diverse student body. Also, it was probably difficult for the school to compete with VA's public university system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were a group of students from large state publics - headed to the beach - we picked up our friend from Sweet Briar. She had to be signed-out. It had to be approved. It seemed so odd to us. She had to give lots of info: where she was going, when she would be back, who she was with. We were use to being spontaneous. Wondered what she wrote down. Our plan - since we were being cheap - was to all (men & women but no romances) to stay together in 1 hotel room.

What year was this?

I'm wondering the same thing. If at all recent, all I can say is, "hmm... no wonder." Most women don't want to be treated this way anymore. But perhaps this was in the 60's or something.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, Hollins and Mary Baldwin updated their images. But I can't believe Sweetbriar couldn't stay open by just marketing to the super-rich of the DC area and doing what ever it took to get them in.

One of my DH former coworkers teaches there--he reached out to her tonight and found out that the faculty, students, and staff were only told 1 hour before this whole deal was announced to the public. Most of their website has been taken down, so he could not even confirm she still worked there before he emailed her. She already replied and she is basically in shock. Had no idea.

Call me jaded, but something is totally fishy about this thing...no one wanted anyone from the press speaking to current faculty and staff.

[Anonymous]

I had always heard that it wasn't a "real" school, and am surprised to hear it was even accredited.

[Anonymous]

This is the tip of the iceberg. In 20 years time, many schools will be shutting down.